“And when the firemen turned off the hose and were standing in the wet, smoky room, Jim's Aunt, Miss Prothero, came downstairs and peered in at them. Jim and I waited, very quietly, to hear what she would say to them. She said the right thing, always. She looked at the three tall firemen in their shining helmets, standing among the smoke and cinders and dissolving snowballs, and she said, "Would you like anything to read?”
― Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales
As Dylan Thomas's incisive Miss Prothero understands, the thing to do, in the face of disaster, is read.
And so I did. As the global pandemic pricked, then burst, such former quotidian pleasures as conversation, embracing loved ones, Zumba, and the communal coffee pot, I buried my nose in one book after another, leapfrogging my reading totals from previous years.
As a result, I read a lot of really excellent books- which made winnowing this year's list unusually harrowing. I also fell into the clutches of some very, very bad books, from which I feel it is incumbent upon me, as someone who is otherwise fairly useless in a global pandemic, to save you.
So here goes!
2020 HALL OF SHAME:
Where the Crawdads Sing: Your grandmother made a quilt from discarded Justin Bieber posters, and then she put it out in the rain until it began to mildew, and now you have to eat the whole thing.
In Five Years: One long series of product placements! Plus cancer!
The Rent Collectors: White, male, Utah-based author pens the heartwarming story of a young Cambodian mother who transcends her life of grinding poverty thanks to the gift of literacy. (No need for snark here; the truth is enough.)
2020 HALL OF FAME:
Best Book For Wringing You Out Like A Wet Washcloth: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb
Do you know how many tears fit inside your body? Prepare to find out! Lori Gottleib's Maybe You Should Talk To Someone sounds boring (a therapist talking about therapy....I'll just lie down for a minute on this couch, shall I?). But it is utterly engrossing, a searing meditation on what it means to be alive.
Best Book About Reincarnation: Life after Life, Kate Atkinson
Reincarnation is right up there with "...and it was all a dream" in the pantheon of Very Bad Literary Ideas. But, stupefyingly, Atkinson makes it work.
Best Book About Spontaneous Combustion: Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson.
This one stuck with me. Possibly because it is full of people catching on fire.
Best Book Set in Kamchatka: The Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips
Have you ever read a book set in Kamchatka? I had not. This series of interlinked short stories felt ever so slightly debut-y, but the writing was clear and elegant, the setting was fascinating, and the plot had wheels.
Just Really *xZjxg*Good: The Dutch House, Ann Patchett
Is Ann Patchett a genius? Does she have a cadre of sentient monkeys chained to typewriters in her attic? Who cares; you should read this. It's big, chewy, oddly old-fashioned novel, nominally about a house, but really constituting the compassionate, painstaking dissection of a family organism. It's fantastic.
Best Book For These Sad, Distracted Times: Olive Again, Elizabeth Strout
Strout writes (has always written) exquisitely, but exquisite writers are not so rare. What's more unusual is Strout's generosity: She's one of the few writers these days who accepts, and even rejoices, in the full human panoply. We are many things, we humans: petty and loving, cruel and ridiculous and kind, and in Strout's fiction those qualities are tightly and beautifully braided. In 2020, a time in which we are encouraged to doubt the humanity of those who think differently, to cut out "toxic" people and excommunicate those who misstep, Strout's message is redemptive. To paraphrase the very wise Bryan Stevenson, we are all more than the worst of ourselves.
2020 HALL OF OTHER THINGS I READ THAT WERE GOOD BUT THAT I AM TOO LAZY TO EXPLICATE:
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family; All Adults Here; No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us; Normal People; Redhead by the Side of the Road; Writers and Lovers; 28 Summers; Miracle Creek; Troubled Blood; The Vanishing Half; Peace Like a River; Red at the Bone; Play It As It Lays; The Last Flight; The Night Watchman; The Cracks In Our Armor
